Where has time gone?

Where has time gone? Mr. Mason is now 4 weeks old! We have had such an amazing 2 weeks together though! 

--3 Weeks--

Mason 3 Weeks - 7.24.13

This wee we were busy again with Mello Yello events and it was also Crazy Days so we spend Thursday(7/18) at the pool! 

We also went the my friend Amanda's wedding on Saturday(7/20) and Mason did an awesome job! 

Great Grandma/Grandpa Stager along with Grandma/Grandpa Speiser came to visit on Sunday(7/21) and we went out for lunch! 

--4 Weeks--

4 Weeks! Where has the time gone! On Saturday my baby boy will be a month old!! This week Mason met his daycare provider, and it was my birthday(7/25), Auntie Heather took us out for lunch to Applebees and then took us Mini Golfing(Heather won)! This was a lot of fun! On Friday(7/26) Mason and I went all by ourselves to the cities to pick up Grandma Blough.

 Matt and I went out for a little bit with some friends and Auntie Heather was the first babysitter we had for Mason! We babysat Mason's cousins the Gniffkes on Sunday(7/28). More Mello Yello events and a nice lunch at the Coffee House to bring back memories from when we were growing up! Tueseday(7/30) we went mini golfing in Belview for FREE how awesome of a double date was that! What a great week it has been! 

Changes are happening tho: Mason has lost weight and we have found out it is because he wasn't getting enough milk from me when I would breast feed. So I am pumping as much as I can but otherwise switching to formula. I am surprised I could even make it this long with my breast reduction. I also got a job at Schwans and will be starting Monday, yes, 8/5/13. I am doing half days the first week (1-5pm) and the full time the next week. Auntie Heather will be watching Mason until he is 6 weeks and can go to daycare. This was a really hard decision to make but with the economy the way it is we need the 2nd income By the time I get paid it will be 10 weeks since I last received a paycheck. I am just trying to spend as much time with Mason as I can(yes I am even holding him as I type this) It hurts so much to think about it but I know it's the best thing right now for our family because who knows if I will be offered another job for awhile. As someone said to me "By it hurting so much it just shows how much you love Mason" I know he will be in great hands though and it will be easier this way then just having to drop him off at daycare. However I have only left him 2 times now and both were for 2hr so this will be a little bit of a change! Prayers would be appreciated! :)

Natural does work!

On July 10th I got my staples out, I was told I would start feeling a lot better and moving around a lot better after. I went in to get them out being very nervous, we have determined I can NOT handle pain. So I was not looking forward to this. I went in the room and they put 50% alcohol and 50% water on them and let them sit for about 10 minutes and then Dr. Reber came in and took a look at them and said that everything looked GREAT! She then took them all out, within 3 minutes, ALL 20 of my staples were out - best part was - I was okay and not in pain and no tears!!! YAHOO! They then put on little strips that they said would fall off. I went home feeling great, it didn't hurt to get in the car or anything!

I had to go back on July 16th to make sure it was healing fine. I went in and she said everything looked great, none of my strips had fallen off so she took them off, this just felt like band aids being take off. I went home and was felling better yet. However I started to notice the next day that my incision itched. Matt just thought it was healing. Finally on Friday night we called my sisters friend Vanessa to see if she had any suggestions. She said to see if Heather had Lavender and Coconut Oil and if she did to mix those and put it on it. So I did and it WORKED! 

I also heard from people the Gripe Water takes away hiccups for babies, so I decided to go to walmart and buy some. Yes it is $10 a bottle but it takes them away INSTANTLY! I may just be becoming a naturalist(if that is even a word) so maybe my sister was right, natural things are the way to go...ha :) 

My life now as a MOM

--Mason 1 week old--

As many of you know I used to drink almost every weekend, then when I met Matt that slowed down quite a bit but still would on occasion. When I found out I was pregnant I was only 21 for not even 3 months, it was hard at first when we would go out with friends for supper and everyone was drinking except me. It has now been EXACTLY 9 months yesterday since I had my last drink but more importantly 9 months ago yesterday we found out that we were going to have a BABY!! It's crazy how things change and how my life revolved around partying and now it revolves around my son! 

Towards the end of my pregnancy I started to have some terrible dreams, most were about how I was going to fail at being a mom. I only talked to Matt about it but that's all I needed, one day he texted me and said "U will be a great mom. U have so much experience with kids. Hunnie don't doubt yourself. U are GREAT!!!!!!" That helped a lot but didn't take away the fact I was still scared to death. I haven't been getting an income for 5 weeks before Mason was born and I was going to have to take off at least 6 weeks..how are we going to get by? How am I going to buy little things we need for our family? -- by having FAITH that's how -- I would get so stressed, we didn't know how we were going to pay mortgage for July and August with me not working and Matt just kept saying God will help us figure it out...and he did. God was just testing my faith and ever since I had Mason my faith has grown stronger. 

God gave me a beautiful baby boy, healthy and strong. 

God has provided for my family in hard times.

God has never lost faith in me and has always been there to listen.

"My God's not dead he's surely alive, livin on the inside roarin like a lion" 

Typical day in our house....well there is no typical day! We just are living each day - day by day - soaking in every minute! Mason and I get to bond all day, which I love and as soon as daddy gets home he showers right away so that he can cuddle his little guy! I never knew how much I loved Matt until I saw the love he has for Mason! Mason is our world now, and nothing else matters. We have our little family of 3 and I couldn't ask for anything more! I was blessed with a very content baby who sleeps really good at night(anywhere from 3 1/2-5 1/2 hours). Which has also made being a first time mom a lot easier! And all the little things like how will we afford things have just worked out and fell into place! 

GOD IS AMAZING!

Our First TWO Weeks!

WOW! Where has time gone?! Our baby boy is 2 weeks old, some of you may say oh only 2 weeks but seriously time has flown by! We came home from the hospital on Saturday, July 6th, to a very clean home I should add thanks to Heather and her family for cleaning and Matt for asking them to(this was a big stress-or and I didn't want to leave the hospital because of it). Mason and I are sleeping in the living room since I can't lay down yet without pain and Matt is in the bedroom. 

The first night was rough I'm not gonna lie, Mason slept from 12:45-4:00am which was very nice but then he was up from 4:00am until 8:15am.....I was exhausted...finally at 7:00am I went and woke up Matt and asked him to come help even if it was just holding him so I could sleep for a little bit. Since then he has been great sleeping anywhere from 3 1/2-5 1/2 hrs at night! 

In the hospital he wouldn't latch on(we are thinking because of my breast reduction) but would eat with a nipple shield, once we came home I thought it would be easier to just pump...well..I was wrong! It was so draining to pump, feed, wash, sleep(maybe for a bit) and do it all over again. I ended up getting ahead of it where Matt could feed him while I pumped but it was still draining.  I was very nervous about how last weekend was going to go since we were going to a wedding/reception on a farm and how I was going to pump/warm up milk/etc. so I started to try the nipple shield again and he picked it right back up, so relieving!

--1 Week--

Mason's 1 week picture - 7.10.13(sorry I can't get it turned so turn your heads! :))

Matt was able to stay home until this past Monday, July 15 and that was really nice to have him home all last week. He was a huge help and really enjoyed cuddle time with his buddy! We didn't do much other than go to appointments, and some coke events - we took Mason to his first chiropractor appointment on 7.8.13 and he did awesome! 

7/10/13 -- going for a walk!

--2 Weeks--

Mason's 2 week picture - 7.17.13

Love him so much

This past week has again went great and mommy is still holding up good! We are both still sleeping in the living room and will hopefully make our way into the bedroom this week! The wedding(Aaron and Lisa's) on Saturday went great and Mason did a super good job, slept the whole time except for eating! :) He got to meet Great Grandma/Grandpa Wolff and Geoff. Mason is still sleeping really good at night(I truly am blessed with such an amazing pregnancy and now a good sleeping baby!)

Heather and the kids have been here since Monday and have been spending the night which has been SUPER helpful. Even if it's just making lunch or Ashtyn helping me wash supplies after feedings! We are out and about more now and that's nice for me, but yet hard. I still can't lift Mr. Mason until next week and then I need to start gradually....Heather really takes this serious she has been carrying both babies and it stresses me out sometimes because I feel she is over doing it with both babies and Peyton(2 1/2) so today we started to bring our stroller with everywhere which made things a lot better for me! :) 

2 car seat - 1 awesome mom/aunt

She really could handle twins--this is what I came out to after my doctor appointment! 

Cesarean Birth: Pros and Cons

Part Two:

Cesarean Birth: Pros and Cons

Everybody has their own opinions on everything in life, I did not want a cesarean birth because I felt like I was going to be a “failure” in everyone else’s eyes for not giving a natural birth, but frankly I don’t care what others think, because by having a cesarean delivery, I have a beautiful, healthy, 1 week old baby boy today. Yes, MAYBE everything would have went fine if I went to a different hospital and they did let me try vaginally. But I could have also tried for hours and still had to have a cesarean, I could have had Birth Trauma and never wanted to have children again, or even worse yet I could have risked both of our lives. So when Dr. Reber told us we needed to have a cesarean birth, yes I was devastated that I couldn't have the birth that I had planned for but I knew it was the right choice.

After having Mason here are my pros and cons of his birth:

Pros: He is here, healthy, big and ALIVE--Healing process really isn't that bad like others make it out to be(I was up walking around not even 15 hours after he was born)--We got to stay in the hospital longer and were able to get more help since we don’t have a lot of family around which helped since he is our first baby--I was still able to have our friend that photographed the birth of Mason IN the operating room with us--Not 12 hours of labor(give or take some hours!)--Everyone was very accommodating and  good at explaining things especially during the birth--

Cons: It was still a major surgery and I am sore(but not terribly considering my incision is much larger then most since he was so big, but I can’t move like I did before, YET!)--I can’t take a bath for 3-4 weeks(I love baths!)--I can’t drive for 2 weeks--I can’t carry Mason in his car seat for at least 3 weeks(maybe more depending how I’m healing)--I can’t go in pools/lakes/rivers for 4+ weeks--

Would I do a Cesarean or VBAC for the next birth and why? Cesarean - I felt like it went really good, considering Mason’s size I wouldn't have been able to do it all natural how I wanted. I feel like the healing process is going good and I am moving around quite fine. However I would plan the next baby in the spring, then I still get to enjoy the summer by going to the pool etc.

--Picture overload!--
Photography by: Katie Galbraith

All hooked up to the machines

My amazing supportive husband

Mason Matthew is here!

Tears of joy!

Dr. Reber with Mason

Matt trimming the cord

Matt cleaning him off

First family picture, even if it is of our heads

Getting to see him for the first time

Getting checked over

Mason Matthew Speiser

Nurse Jenna and baby Mason

Daddy and Mason

Again <3

Getting to hold him for the first time

So in love <3

Family pic :)

My precious bundle of joy <3 

Mason Matthew’s Birth Story

Part One:
Mason Matthew’s Birth Story

--Warning this is lengthy!-- 

As some of you have ready, I was nervous of the chance of being told I HAD to have a c-section. I thought in my mind I was okay with it but in reality I wasn't. I think the hardest thing about being told that I HAD to have a c-section was the fact that I really started to eat healthy and watch my weight so that I wouldn't have to, since I was at 33 weeks I have stayed at pretty much the same weight, I have cut back on eating out and drinking pop. But what is important is to know that GOD IS IN CONTROL OF EVERYTHING and he has a reason for everything! 

Wednesday, July 3 2013 at 10:30 am we headed to the hospital for our ultra sound, this appointment was going to determine weather or not I had to be induced, have a c-section or be allowed to be pregnant for up to another week(if baby Speiser didn't come before then). I have been doing black and blue cohosh one time a day to try to get things to start, we also have been walking, eating spicy food, and went for a swim at the YMCA. We walk in and get checked in, at this point I am very nervous as to what is to happen, we get to the desk and it’s someone new….GREAT(not) she takes at least 5 minutes to check us in when usually it takes less then a minute….I am very annoyed and irritated….patients have ran out…we go sit in the waiting area to go back for the ultra sound…waiting…waiting….waiting….finally..our name is called. We go back and of course the person doing the ultra sound was someone new….again..annoyed, every time I asked what something was her response was I’m not quite sure, there was another lady in there that would then explain things….after 30 minutes, our longest ultra sound in awhile…we were told baby Speiser was measuring 5, 220 grams…UGH…plus or minus 700 grams…awesome right? We might be allowed to wait since it was plus or minus 700 grams….at least that’s what I have in my head at this point. 

They send us upstairs to do the stress test, thankfully I had some of the best nurses at this point. They hooked me up to the monitors and got me sprite and water, they explained that every time I felt baby move I had to press this button. Twenty minutes went by and they came in to say that I was so close to passing but they wanted me to stay hooked up for a little longer, at about noon they called Dr. Reber to fill her in on the test. They came back in the room and it was the worst thing I ever wanted to hear, at this point I still thought I had a chance of going another week. They said “We just got off the phone with Dr. Reber and she wants you to schedule a c-section for tonight, we have to take away all your fluids and no more eating or drinking.” …it hit….it hit hard…I’m not having the birth that I have been planning for this whole pregnancy…I broke down…..tears just started rolling down my face…they didn't stop…I couldn't get them to stop…this went on until about 12:30 pm…what made them stop?….I looked at the clock and realized we missed the mellow yellow event and asked Matt to run there quick since there was a half hr left….he said “really, that’s what you’re thinking about now!!!!??” haha I guess it was a good laugh.. Dr. Reber came in at 1 pm to talk to me about the c-section…maybe just maybe I could talk her into inducing me and trying to have a vaginal birth and if all else fails to have a c-section….she walked in the door….gave me the worst look ever…I know she didn't want to say it…and she didn't….I just started to cry again…I knew there was no choice….she said “I know you aren't happy and you tried so hard to keep your weight under control so he wouldn't get bigger but it is the safest thing to do for you and baby, please don‘t be mad at me“….I wasn't. mad at her at all…how could I be she has done everything the way I wanted it for my whole pregnancy….with tears rolling down my face, trying to breath, I got the words out, “Can I please just try vaginally and be induced???”….the answer was no….Matt is doing everything he can to comfort me, but nothing anyone says or does is making it better…I just have to deal with it…suck it up and move on. We set up the ultra sound for 8pm and were told we could go home and come back at 6pm….this was the worst part….lets just do it now, then I don’t have to think about it for the next 7  hours…..well the next 7 hours flew by….we went to Matt’s work so he could change, we came home and finished packing our bags, we also just sat and relaxed, then I decided I wanted to get my hair done, something to keep my mind busy and Matt needed a haircut so we went to Great Clips and got Matt’s hair cut and my hair curled….next thing we know it’s 5:51pm and we are in the parking lot of the hospital. I will do a timeline for the rest of events, you have all had to read a lot already!  :)

6:00pm - got upstairs - checked into our room - changed into gown and got my IV put in

6:40pm - got my catheter put in

7:00pm - Katie arrived 

Lots of waiting

7:45pm - Matt and Katie changed and got into their “scrubs”

7:55pm - Anesthesiologist came in to explain procedures 

8:05pm - Rolled me downstairs to operating room - Matt and I prayed together, and I went in ALONE to get my spinal

8:20pm - Last time I looked at the clock - “The Blue Sheet” got put up - Matt’s holding my hand

8:32pm - The best sound I have EVER heard - MASON MATTHEW SPEISER’S CRY to say that he was BORN!!! Tears of joy started to flow, he’s HERE!!!!!! 

8:40pm - Mason, Matt and Katie go upstairs to get him blood sugar levels up. 

9:20pm - I see the clock, I’m sealed up and ready to go see my baby boy! 

9:30pm - I got to hold my baby boy for the first time! 

10:00pm - We started to call family - My parents, Matt’s Parents, My sister, Karen, Melissa and then we started to text friends

10:40pm - Auntie Heather and Uncle TJ arrive  

As we were all talking there was two quotes Heather felt that I needed to remember so she wrote them down for me: 

--”poor little bugger had to take a thermometer in the kesister” - Matt talking about getting his temp taken!! 

--”then you just came rolling by, they said we could go be with ma and try breast feeding” - Matt again :)

Mason Matthew Speiser

7/3/13

8:32pm

10lbs 5oz

23 inches